Monster movies have come a long way since the 1950s. A long, long way. That does not mean, however, that the newest installments of monsters x and y are necessarily better, as Ishirô Honda's original Godzilla is arguably a genuinely more engaging film than anything that has come out in the past few decades. This movie is not only chock full of culturally significant material for the Japanese people of the time but contains a slew of surprisingly entertaining technical elements. This film is especially interesting to look at nowadays, when the newest Godzilla films may not even be considered Godzilla films. Every new American installment is devoid of what initially made this monster so terrifying and while there are plenty of historical reasons for the absence of this information, it is so compelling to be able to look back at this and view it in a different worldview. And thank god I was able to view the original Japanese version without the extra 20 minutes of unnecessary, Americanized footage.
After many fishing boats and residential homes are destroyed off the coast of Japan, the Japanese military sends out their most diligent officers to investigate the swarm of possible attacks. They discover, however, a two million-year-old dinosaur that was born from the effects of atomic warfare and has resurfaced to wreak havoc on the humanity that created him. With the help of Dr. Serizawa (Akihiko Hirata), Hideto (Akira Takarada) and Emiko (Momoko Kôchi) work to find a way to stop this rampaging beast. This script and Honda's direction are absolutely incredible and make their case for being one of Japan's most important stories ever told. The character of Godzilla is a blatant metaphor for the dropping of the atomic bomb by America and this fuels the plot throughout the film. While no direct references were made, the subtle hints were more than enough to understand the meaning of this film, especially in the emotional court and war room scenes. The script may also rely a bit too much on coincidences and easy plot development but it is nonetheless impactful when put in the context of when and why it was made. What makes this film even more intriguing and quite a bit melancholic is how the writers treated the normal residents of Japan throughout this film and the impact that Godzilla had on their culture. Instead of entirely focusing on the human protagonists' struggle or just pure monster action, a lot of shots and environmental scenes were included for the sake of showing how impactful Godzilla was in the wake of his destruction. The audience saw nameless citizens get crushed or burned to death and this often traumatizing inclusion made this story that much more important. In fact, Godzilla had a better balance of human story and monster story than any other addition into this franchise that I have yet to see. That proves to be vital in telling a story of this magnitude and Honda did not disappoint with his perfect balance of drama.
This film is also an incredible feat from a technical standpoint. Compared to technology nowadays, this film has not aged well but in the context of when it was made and how effective it still is, the remarkability shines. I'm not one to argue whether movies are better with or without CGI because there is solid evidence for both, but one thing for sure is how impressively terrifying one guy in a suit can be. Jokes have been made for generations about monsters in films just being a model or a costume specialist prancing around, but this film has truly set the standard for how to make something so horrifying so realistic. Another aspect of this beautiful film that surprised me was the score from Akira Ifukube. His use of roaring in the instrumentals and background was haunting right off the bat. His music reminded me greatly of what a modern composer would make for one of today's epic blockbuster films. While this film was by no means made for the profit, the music definitely threw me for how perfectly and contemporarily it fit this story. All of the performances in this film were fantastic, especially from Takarada and Kôchi, as they embodied the perfect, almost naive pair of characters that are meant to be the underdogs and save the day. Their relationship is also underscored by some secrets with Dr. Serizawa and this made for some excellent character development.
Godzilla, originally titled Gojira, is such an important part of film history, not only for its critical historical significance but for its modern use of filmmaking techniques. I found myself enjoying this movie a lot more than I probably had the right to and the fact that this infamous character was born out of something so horrific only makes the history of this film that much more interesting. If only us stupid Westerners didn't go out of our way to repurpose its entire meaning.
My Rating: ★★★★
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